The Lazy Garbage Nursery Guide
1. Don't work hard.
If you have waste and space, you're wasting space.
Transform scraps into food and foliage! Spend zero dollars and a few hours per year making plants.
Don't overthink it. Don't sink a bunch of time into it. Don't dive into research rabbit-holes and artificially sate your curiosity.
Failed experiments beat daydreams.
2. Make space.
You can grow plants in a frontyard, balcony, window, garage, alley, etc.
If space is limited, ask friends and family to donate space in exchange for produce.
3. Reuse containers.
Cardboard and plastics are valuable materials. Don't give them away for free!
- Use clear plastic bottles and containers to root cuttings in water.
- Use large cardboard boxes and garbage-bag-liners as makeshift garden beds or drip trays.
- Poke holes in the bottoms of other plastic containers and set in larger drip trays.
- Grow potatoes in cardboard boxes.
- Use medium-sized plastic bags for mushrooms and larger plants.
- Consider shredded paper or cardboard as a mushroom substrate.
4. Save seeds.
All fruits come with baby bonus plants inside. Vegetables regrow themselves from severed organs. Plants are weird.
- Save seeds.
- Barter yardwork services on Craigslist for seeds and cuttings.
- Revive kitchen scraps -- even mushrooms.
- Reuse bouquets.
- Obtain cuttings via friends, neighbors, or piracy.
5. Collect compost.
Soil is brown gold. Hoard organic material and let it rot.
- You can compost with garbage bags or use a fancy tumbler.
- Ask neighbors if you can collect their compost on a weekly basis.
- Become a worm rancher!
- Borrow a friend's truck to get free dirt on Craigslist.
6. Forget watering.
Plants combine carbon dioxide and water to make glucose. Plants use glucose as both fuel and building materials.
- Use the Kratky method (hydroponic) to grow plants in a bucket without soil.
- Normalize neglect! It's okay to leave plants outside and pray for rain.
- You can connect a drip system to a backyard rainwater resevoir.
- Strategically place pots next to existing sprinklers.
- Put a drip resevoir next to your kitchen sink.
- Make a toilet garden.
7. Share.
With just one plant, you can clone an army of plants!
